I’ve made a lot of planes over the years… also a couple ofsuper heavy mortising chisels, mallets, and marking gages,and bow saws.

I use Bailey pattern planes mostly. I like my wooden planesbut the metal ones hold their settings and are easy to adjust.

The mortising chisels I made from 1/2” x 1” tool steel bar stock.I learned to temper them with a propane torch. I don’t usethem anymore… they are heavy and a little awkward.

The mallets fell apart. Oh well. I could make a better one now I reckon but I usually use a ball peen hammer or a rubber-tipped hammer.

I made a Japanese style marking gage with a piece of hacksawblade serving as the knife. I still use it from time to time whenI need to have several gages going at a time. I prefer a smallerJapanese gage I bought… because it fits in my apron pocketand marks mortises too.

The bow saws I love. I cut dovetails with them. I have it downto a science.

Oh man! you put my stuff to shame. My self-made toolsare usually hacked-out in a hurry.

I made the chisels from instructions in an article in FWW…if you have the CD-rom you can probably find it – an articleabout how to cut tenons with a table-saw and mortise byhand… written before all these biscuit joiners and plungerouters became affordable.

I built my bowsaws from an article by Yeung Chan. I bought a butcher-saw blade, ground the set off the sides and refiledit to rip. I built the saw with a 3-piece frame of ash – a lot likethe one above but less elegantly shaped. The blade is held bya couple of brass bolts with a hacksawed slot in the end to hold the blade ends… and a pin through the bolt there.

Most “dovetail” saws have way too much set. I wanted to cut it as close as possible. That was the saw doesn’t wigglein the kerf and you get a straight line easily. I have to keep fresh wax on the blade or it binds.

My stuff is mostly in storage and disarray right now. I movedfrom West to East coast and haven’t set up much. I may get some pics some time… but not today.

Home made and modified for luthiery. I’ve posted these before but it’s hard to keep a useful tool down.

Cabinet scraper to smooth the back of a double bass neck. Double convex spokeshave for carving tops and backs of archtops.

Scraper plane to shape and plane in relief on a double bass fingerboard. A DB fingerboard is a compound radius with string relief 525mm from the nut.. half the 1050mm scale length. String straight edge.

Not real pretty but these days tools only have to work well for me and I’m chuffed.